Hey there Boca Mag! Thanks for taking the time to chat with me about Feminist Happy Hour Delray Beach and the South Florida comedy scene.

Swiz is at the forefront of these changing times. Raised partly in Palm Beach County, she’s back in town to bring Feminist Happy Hour, a women’s-empowerment concept she launched in Chicago, to Delray Beach. Despite its name, it’s more than a social gathering with discounted drinks: It’s a female-centric night of performances encompassing comedians, monologists, poets and improvisers that invites to “raise a drink and raise your consciousness!” She’ll host the inaugural Feminist Happy Hour at 7 p.m. Friday at Improv U in Delray Beach.

“Comedy is default masculine, because men have dominated it,” says Swiz. “And that’s true about so many of our industries. It’s important to remind people that it’s hard to see the absence, because it’s invisible. You have to try to normalize it by saying, ‘we’re going to put just women onstage. We’re not going to allow men to have a place here.’ This show is one-of-a-kind, and eventually I would think a show like this would be unnecessary, because there would be more of a balance, and there won’t be a need to amplify and highlight certain voices. But we’re certainly not there yet.”

Although the contents of the course are introductory, Swiz says it is generally aimed at people who are already asking questions and engaging in discussions about gender and media. "I tried to cover a brief, focused history of the way our media is constructed in terms of power dynamics because I think that's a big piece of the puzzle that people really aren't consciously aware of when they're watching or interacting with media," she says.

The course is intended to provide insight into theories of media, notably the cultivation theory, an idea developed by professor George Gerbner. "Cultivation theory argues that the media has become our primary storyteller," Swiz explains. "We've moved away from stories that come from church, or school or our families that have been passed down in our lineage. We now turn to television and the stories that are created by the news media to help construct our view of the world. I use cultivation theory to talk about how the media cultivates gender roles specifically, but I also look at the intersections of race and class."